gfxCardStatus: Quick Switching Between Graphic Cards [Mac]

Do you often switch graphic cards on your Mac? There are many Mac users out there who prefer moving back & forth between two or more graphical cards installed on their systems due to various reasons. Some do this to conserve power, others for using a particular application. Sometimes whilst using Mac, all of a sudden you need extra power to use a specific application, for instance a video or multimedia tool that requires higher energy, in that case you’ll need to quit all applications since a log out is required to switch to a new card.

gfxCardStatus is an open source application that lets you keep track of graphic cards in your system & allows you to switch easily between them. All it requires is one click for instant switching without having to restart or log out. It has a simple and clean interface as it doesn’t clutter your system with extra fonts & shortcuts rather appears on the menubar as an embedded tool. It come with basic operational features like preferences where you can choose update on start up and Log Diagnostic to console options.

This tool, although tiny, boasts of some very attractive features. Speaking of which, it offers an easy card representation as it uses name initials for the cards you’re using, for instance “i” for intel or “n” for nvidia. It allows you to quickly switch GPU and updates automatically when the GPU switches in realtime. Sadly it doesn’t support hotkeys. It doesn’t take much of system resources. and comes with a Growl support so you’d know when a switch is made.

Note that it only works for 2010 MacBook Pros with Intel Core i5/i7 processors and the NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M GPU.

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